My favorite healthy snacks!

I am a snacker. Guilty as charged. I LOVE to snack and I love snack foods. A lot of people argue that in order to lose weight or be healthier you need to snack less and I disagree. My day consists of 5 small meals rather than 3 big meals. 2 of those “meals” are snacks!

Having 2 snack type meals throughout the day keeps your from crashing and gives you more energy! That’s what food is for, right? I tend to have 1 small snack in between breakfast and lunch and another in between lunch and dinner. That second one is so crucial to my day. When I get home from work around 5pm I’m starving and need to recharge! Some of my healthy and clean go to snacks are:

Almond milk yogurt (Greek yogurt is a fine alternative to this, I just can’t have milk!)

Apples, peaches, watermelon, honeydew, or cantaloupe

Granola/protein bars

Veggies and hummus

Juices or smoothies

etc.

But there are always those days when I want something salty and carby. Maybe my day at work was extra long and so I’m extra hungry or maybe it’s that time of the month and my body is craving salt. I found that this was when I “cheated” the most. I was too hungry to wait to make a smoothie and I knew an apple or a yogurt wouldn’t fill me up as much as I needed so I would grab whatever salty food we had and binge. It was becoming a problem and was really throwing me off on my goals so I went on a mission to find healthy alternatives to my favorite junk foods.

I found SO many great products that I love! With these I like to live 60/40. I like to eat the snacks on the above list of foods 60% of the time and my “healthy alternatives” foods 40% of the time when I’m really craving that salty snack or I’m especially hungry. Don’t get me wrong, these foods are still much healthier than any junk food alternative and can be very beneficial to a healthy lifestyle. However they do tend to have a higher amount of sodium and carbs than say, and apple of course. Just something to keep in mind!

My go-to snacks!

Snapea Crisps are amazing. Kurtis and I both love them! They’re essentially just dried Sugar Snap Peas with different seasonings on them. The calorie count goes up depending on the flavor so it’s best to just stick with the lightly salted flavor. Kurtis loves the wasabi ranch and ceasar flavors! These can be found almost anywhere but I’ve found the most variety of flavors at Sprouts.

I am absolutely in love with Boom Chicka Pop. Like I said in a previous post, air popped popcorn is a great healthy snack, and one of my favorites! They are made with all natural ingredients, and taste amazing! There are 5 different Boom Chicka Pop flavors, Sea Salt, Lightly Sweet, Sweet and Salty Kettle Corn, White Cheddar, and Caramel and Cheddar. Again, the calorie count goes up depending on the flavor so I find it best to stick with the Sea Salt. My personal favorites of the flavors are Sea Salt, Lightly Sweet, and Kettle Corn (not pictured) you can find these at Sprouts.

Serving Size: 1 cup

Calories: 35 (sea salt), 37 (lightly sweet)

Total Fat: 7g (sea salt), 4g (lightly sweet)

Sodium: 90mg (sea salt), 110mg (lightly sweet)

Total Carbohydrate: 19g (sea salt), 21g (lightly sweet)

I could eat my weight in Pita Chips and Hummus. I usually eat hummus with baby carrots or sugar snap peas, but I love to grab a handful of Stacy’s Pita Chips as well. You can buy Stacy’s almost anywhere but you can get this big bag at Costco. We get our hummus from Sprouts because they have so many great flavors. Right now we have Red Pepper, Chipotle, Black Bean (my personal favorite), and Avocado.

Stacy’s Pita Chips

Serving size: 1 oz (about 10 chips)

Calories: 130

Total Fat: 5g

Sodium: 270mg

Total carbohydrates: 19g

Special K chips are a life saver. Whenever I get them I like to count out the serving sizes and bag them up to grab for my lunch or to keep in my purse if hunger strikes. They have a ton of great flavors and products and the best part about them is that the serving sizes are actually decent so you’ll feel full afterwards. I hate when serving sizes are only like, 8 chips. The cracker chips come in, Sea Salt, Cheddar, Sour Cream and Onion, Honey Barbecue, Southwest Ranch, and Chipotle Lime. The normal crackers only come in the Multigrain for now. They also have Popcorn Chips which aren’t my favorite but are still pretty good. Those come in, Butter, Kettle Corn, Sea Salt, and Cheddar.

Serving size: 27 chips (honey barbecue), 24 crackers (multigrain)

Calories: 110 (honey barbecue), 120 (multigrain)

Total Fat: 2.5g (honey barbecue), 3g (multigrain)

Sodium: 210mg (honey barbecue), 220mg (multigrain)

Total Carbohydrates: 23g (both)

Coconut Water!

Coconut water is so great for you! If you’re one of those people who lives on juice and soda and can’t seem to drink a lot of water (even though you know you should!), coconut water is for you!

I was super bummed when I tried coconut water for the first time and didn’t like it. I had read so much about how great it is for you and all the benefits it has, and wanted so badly to start drinking it! But I just didn’t like the taste. But then I found Amazon coconut water. It’s coconut water mixed with tea and it’s delicious! I’m extremely happy I found a coconut water I like. It comes in green tea, white tea, and black tea. Kurtis likes traditional Zico coconut water so I buy that for him. It also comes in chocolate but neither of us are really crazy about that flavor.

Quest Bars are great for those sugar cravings. They’ve been getting a lot of attention lately so I really wanted to try them and see what all the fuss was about. They are very good! The best protein bar I’ve ever had! They still have that slight “protein-bar taste” but they did a good job at masking it. And it’s so great to be able to eat something that’s cookie dough flavored and not feel bad about it!

I have Quest bars and other protein/granola bars hidden everywhere. I have one in all of my purses and bags, and in the glove compartment of my car, just in case I get hungry. I’m supposed to stay away from dairy because of my migraines but I can handle it in moderation. So I’ve had a Quest bar a couple of times in the last week since I bought them and no reaction so far! Quest bars make a few berry flavors that are dairy free but they’re definitely not as yummy as the cookies and cream. chocolate chip cookie dough, and double fudge type flavors.

I bought my Quest Bars at GNC. They’re not as cheap as other protein bars, about $2.50 a piece, but it’s worth it when they taste so much better. I bought a handful of Quest Bars just for this post but ate all but one before I took the pictures…oops.

For Kurtis

I know when you saw these in the group picture above you were probably confused. The Slim Jims are definitely not the healthiest things! But these are Kurtis’ healthier snacks. Before we got married Kurtis was the type of guy who ate whatever he wanted and was still skinny as a rail. He ate lots of fast food and drank lots of soda, and never seemed to gain a pound. It’s totally not fair. However, we all know that just because someone isn’t overweight, doesn’t mean they’re healthy. And I love him and want him to live a long time! So since we’ve been married he’s committed to eating healthier for me, and he’s doing a great job! I could go into more detail about how he eats vs. how I eat and how I got him to make the change but that’s for a whole other post! (Which I will write soon!)

Kurtis typically works 8 hour shifts with a lunch break around the 4 hour mark. I don’t know about you guys but I’m hungry way before then! So we always pack him a little bag of healthy snacks that he can have before and after his lunch break when he’s hungry. His bags usually have:

Some type of granola or protein bar (I usually get KIND bars, which are super good for you, but Nature Valley was on sale!)

100 calorie packets of almonds

Mini Slim Jims

Wasabi Peas/Edamame (I get these at Sprouts for about $4/pound. He loves anything Wasabi flavored and it gets him to eat more veggies!)

A banana

The bags turn out like this:

So, there you have it! If you’re a snacker like me, I’m sure you’ll love as these products! You can snack and still be healthy, I promise! If you know of any other healthy snack products you think I would like, please let me know, I would love to try them!